Action Alert

Help kill an absurd bill in the state Senate!

Ask Oklahoma Senate to halt Ten Commandments legislation

April 19, 2017

A bill that could stealthily be used to install Ten Commandments monuments on public property is progressing through the Oklahoma Legislature. We already asked you to take action against House Bill 2177 when it was in the House. Please make your voice heard again by asking the state Senate to kill this bill.

Oklahoma legislators have renewed their quest to put up Christian displays on government grounds. Less than two years after the state lost a case at the Oklahoma Supreme Courtover its display of a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol, state Rep. John Bennett has introduced a bill that would land it back in court over the same violation.

CONTACT

Take just a minute of your time now to contact your state senator asking him or her to reject this bill. Let our simple automated contact system contact your senator for you.

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BACKGROUND

House Bill 2177 would embolden local government entities, including "every county, municipality, city, town, school or any other political subdivision" to violate the state Constitution in the same way the Legislature did in 2015. The bill embeds the allowance to display the Ten Commandments within a scheme to display "historically significant documents ... proudly and resolutely in public buildings and on public grounds." However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court specifically rejected the historic purpose argument in its previous decision, noting that, "the Ten Commandments are obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths."

Passing this bill would needlessly waste more taxpayer money on an issue that was already litigated. The Legislature lost in 2015. Oklahomans deserve representatives with longer memories!

Contact your state senator today to voice your opposition to this patently unlawful bid to inject religion into its government structure.